


The Chameleon & The Private Eye

by Diary



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Werewolves, Alternate Universe - Thieves, Alternate Universe – Private Investigators, Background Theo Raeken, Bechdel Test Fail, Canon Character of Color, Canon Gay Character, Canon Queer Character of Color, Condoms, Enemy Lovers, Families of Choice, Interracial Relationship, Late Night Conversations, Liam Dunbar & Mason Hewitt Friendship, Love, Mentioned Danny Mahealani, Minor Liam Dunbar/Hayden Romero, Morally Ambiguous Character, POV Character of Color, POV Mason Hewitt, POV Queer Character, Past Child Abuse, Police Officer Hayden Romero, Private Investigator Liam Dunbar, Private Investigator Mason Hewitt, Romance, Texting, Thief Corey Bryant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-25 20:18:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16204925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: AU. PI Mason and thief Corey occasionally hook up. Complete.





	The Chameleon & The Private Eye

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Teen Wolf.

Whenever Mason is in the van, his phone or computer chiming is never a good thing.

Taking a deep breath, he switches the security footage away from Liam.

Sighing, he types out: _Chameleon has just shown up. Stay calm._

Take out the serial killer aspect, and Corey Bryant could give Ted Bundy a run for his money. No picture of him ever looks the same, despite being a white male, he once ducked into a black church and successfully stayed hidden when the people looking for him came in (Mason suspects he blended in with  _them_ , but it’s never been clear what exactly he did, only that he avoided capture), and if there’s ever proof the supernatural is real, Mason will know he’s among the supernatural population, because, Mason swears he somehow can make facial recognition fail to recognise him.

Liam hates him, and Mason- doesn’t. He shouldn’t like him as much as he sometimes does, but usually, he can be objective. When he left his intelligence job and Liam resigned from the police force, they both agreed they’d stick solely to doing P.I. work. They wouldn’t go after criminals unless they were paid to.

 _I’m going to kill him_ , is the response.

Switching the security footage back over to Liam, he sends, _No, you’re not. You’re going to get the proof, and then, get out. Chameleon never uses violence or weapons. If he steals something, that’s the cheating wife’s problem._

_What if he steals the kid or her pets?_

He rolls his eyes. _He doesn’t do kidnapping, and yeah, okay, if I see him going near the animals, then, yes, you can stop him._

In truth, he doubts Corey would stoop to stealing a pet, but he can’t say for certain Corey’s moral code extends to that.

However, he does know Corey is allergic to cat hair, and hopefully, if Liam ever finds out he knows this, then, Liam won’t also find out _how_ he came to discover it.

_Fine, but I’m not happy about this._

That makes two of us, he thinks.

Corey’s appearances in his life are almost always a combination of great physical pleasure and pure emotional hell.

He was good at his former job, and if anyone had ever insinuated there was a danger of him being compromised or, worse, that he’d ever willingly do anything to put his country in danger, assuming it was a man saying this, he would have been tempted to let Liam punch them.

That person doesn’t exactly match up with the one who occasionally sleeps with a known thief who occasionally freelances for one of the city’s worst gangs.

On the screen, Liam gets the evidence.

_Good job. Now, don’t even think of heading anywhere but straight towards the exit._

_What if he goes after the pets once I’m gone?_

_Trust me, he’s not going to go after the pets. Even he’s not good enough to stay unnoticed while dragging around an overweight cat, a yappy dog, and a cranky turtle._

Besides, the cat’s a Persian, the dog pees on everything, and the turtle refuses to let either of them out of sight for more than five minutes. There’s a reason the soon-to-be ex-husband is happy to sign full ownership of them over to the cheating wife.

Thankfully, Liam listens, and soon, he’s out of the party and in the van.

“Here.” He tosses the laptop over.

“Awesome. Assuming our client is right, Danny should have the proof by tomorrow. I was thinking, maybe, you should deliver it tonight instead of-”

“You’re going to try to find Bryant, aren’t you?”

“No. Of course not. What makes you-”

At Liam’s look, he sighs. All his training vs Liam’s is rendered moot by the fact they’ve known each other since they were five. Liam knew that he was gay before he did, and he knew Liam had a crush on his future sister-in-law before Liam did.

In fact, he’s willing to bet anything, when the day comes Liam and Hayden realise they should get married, it’ll come as a surprise to them, and he’ll have to stop them both from trying to talk themselves out of it.

“Yeah. Look, I don’t think he was here on business, but something’s off. I can’t think of why he might’ve been.”

“Probably been too long since his last booty call,” is Liam’s barbed response. “What, our last run-in with him was three months ago, right?”

“Our last one was three months, eight days ago,” he agrees.

 _His_ last run-in, however, was a month and a half ago.

Liam scoffs. “Tell me when your appointment at the clinic is so that we can schedule around it, if necessary.”

“Will do. I’ll bring the coffee tomorrow, okay?”

Finally, a smile crosses Liam’s face. “Just be careful, alright?”

“I will.”

They hug, and he gets out of the van.

…

Corey’s unusually easy to find, and he wonders if Liam’s right.

The second time they had sex, he’d made it clear: 1. They weren’t ever doing it, again, and 2. If they did, he wasn’t promising monogamy to the thief he might one day help put in jail.

After Corey had finished laughing, he’d made it clear he didn’t believe statement 1 before giving a breakdown of why he didn’t agree with the concept of monogamy.

With both the hours he works and the nature of his job, he hardly ever socialises with anyone besides Liam and Hayden outside of business, but he knows Corey could probably find someone any night of the week. Whether Corey does or doesn’t is something he tries hard to not think about.

Walking over to the bar, he greets, “Hey.”

Looking over, Corey smiles, and as usual, the oxytocin, dopamine, and endorphins released by his traitorous brain wreak havoc on his body.

At first glance, Corey looks nice, normal, and innocent. He’s a handsome man, but he must have been really cute as a kid. Slightly curly brown hair, brown eyes, and a slight dimple.

Sometimes, though, his smile is what Mason’s always imagined when he reads about characters with wolfish smiles. It makes him feel as if Corey wants to devour him, and even knowing how bad this would be if it happened, part of him can’t help but want that.

He starts to signal for the bartender, but to his surprise, shaking his head, Corey motions for the bartender to stay away. “I don’t understand how you can always spot me.”

Sitting down, he says, “Well, in this case, you didn’t make it hard. You let the cameras catch your face several times. I’m not sure why, but for once, facial recognition actually recognised you.”

“Yeah, but even when I don’t want anybody, including you, to see me, somehow, you still always do.” Finishing his drink, Corey sets his phone on the table, and Mason can see him press the button to start recording.

“I’m not sure what the laws are on recording conversations in California. But you know I’m recording, and you don’t have to say anything. It’s important I do. Epifania Lorca is Officer Hayden Romero.”

His blood freezes.

“I haven’t told Raeken. I wouldn’t do anything to put a police officer’s life in danger. But with me finding out, how long do you think it will take before he does?”

Walking away, he fumbles for his own phone, and he manages not to cry when Liam answers, “Mason?”

“It’s about Hayden,” he starts.

…

Letting himself into Liam’s, he almost collapses when he sees Hayden sitting in Liam’s lap.

Smiling softly, she comes over. Kissing his cheek, she says, “Hey, it’s okay. As far as Raeken’s concerned, tomorrow, I die in a car crash.”

“Good. Your sister?”

Coming over, Liam hugs him.

“I’ll call her tomorrow.” She catches his eyes. “Thank you.”

He nods. “Sorry about you having to leave the case.”

“I’m not leaving it entirely. There’s a Calavera Raeken wants dead. I’m going to find her, see if we can flip her.”

Liam frowns. “And if doing this gets word of you back to Raeken?”

A matching frown crosses her face. “Don’t start. Raeken’s involved in human trafficking. You know better than anyone why I can’t walk away.”

Liam sighs. “Yeah, but- Do you know what sort of hell I’ve been in these last few months? How it felt when Mason called? How I couldn’t breathe right until you were here with me?”

He heads to the kitchen. Once he gets something to settle his stomach, he’ll leave to give them all the privacy they need for their newest round of ‘we both work dangerous jobs, but my dangerous job is less dangerous than yours’.

…

The moonlight illuminates Corey’s face. “Mason?”

He steps out of the shadows.

“You’re lucky this didn’t ruin someone else’s car,” Corey says.

“Right, because, this isn’t someone else’s car.”

Corey gives a slight shrug. “Someone else’s non-stolen car.”

“You know all the best ways to get in and out of the city undetected. I’ve been trying to learn them myself. No one comes down this road, especially past midnight. It was a safe gamble putting the spike strip out.”

“I’m not getting involved in anything involving any police officers you know.”

“I know. That’s not why I wanted to talk to you. Hayden’s safe. Thank you.”

“Anything I did was, because, being anywhere near a cop’s death is something even I couldn’t get out of. They’d probably send me to some state I’m wanted in that has the death penalty.”

He almost starts to explain California still has the death penalty, but even if it didn’t, that isn’t how extradition works.

Then, he remembers Corey really doesn’t care.

Corey doesn’t so much as choose to disregard laws as he just- genuinely doesn’t know or care what most laws are. He knows stealing is legally wrong, but in his mind, all his thefts are, if not moral, at least, amoral rather than immoral. He knows murder and violence are against the law, and he has a moral stance against the latter and a healthy respect, at least, for the seriousness of breaking the former.

Otherwise, everything from digital piracy, jaywalking, forging a signature, to paying other people’s meters, he didn’t believe was illegal until he was shown proof online.

“Whatever your reasons, thank you.”

“Are you grateful enough to give me a ride back into town?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Packing up the spike strip, they get in his car.

“Where to in town?”

“Anywhere’s good. There are ways to get out undetected you haven’t found yet.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“Yeah, I do.”

Whether he likes it or not, the statement is accurate.

…

Pulling into a hotel parking lot, he tells himself what he should and absolutely shouldn’t do.

“If you feel like some company and agree to let me pay for the room, I don’t have anything better to do,” he says.

Corey’s smile is soft, welcoming, and all he can do is thank God that Corey doesn’t have the patience to pull off romantic cons. A smile like this would make anyone, even those not attracted to men, weak.

When Corey leans over, he meets him for a kiss.

After it breaks, the hand resting on his cheek is the perfect temperature of warm, and Corey’s beautiful eyes are softly amused.

He’s seen Corey’s eyes be coolly assessing before. He’s never seen them cruel, but sometimes, he wonders if it’s possible someone so outside the fringes of normal society can ever have true empathy or affection for those within it.

Of course, he’s looked into Corey’s past as much as he could. Hopefully, Corey knows or wouldn’t care if he found out, but- Corey’s parents were neglectful, and no one caught this until Corey was pronounced dead at fourteen. It turned out, he was comatose with an extremely weak pulse, and soon after he was able to slip out of the morgue, he left town.

His parents, not that they deserve such a title, were solely focused on getting any possible money out of all this.

Aside from a picture of Corey’s supposedly dead body, he couldn’t find any pictures of him. Apparently, his parents didn’t give permission for school pictures when he was little, but if this was due to them specifically opting out or just not opting-in, he isn’t sure. When Corey was twelve, a typed letter signed with the name of Corey’s father in Corey’s handwriting made it clear no pictures or videos of Corey were to be taken.

He might have found some blurry pictures of Corey on social media, but they were so blurry he can’t tell for sure.

Quiet, shy, and subpar reading skills is almost all he’s been able to find from school reports. In eighth-grade, a random drug-test came back positive for ecstasy, but for some reason, nothing ever came of this.

He can’t really imagine Corey as shy, but he knows there’s a good possibility anyone who’s been on their own since fourteen could quickly lose any shyness they once had.

“Sounds good to me,” Corey says.

Making sure he has condoms, he gets out of the car.

…

Gentle shaking and Corey’s voice has him blinking sleepily.

For all Corey causes him emotional hell, he’ll give Corey this: Corey never leaves him sleeping all alone.

The first time they’d fallen asleep together, or at least, the first time _he’d_ fallen asleep after they’d had sex, he’d woken up surprised to see Corey still there, and it’s been the same every time. Once, Corey had been in the bathroom, but there hadn’t been any indication he was about to leave.

Now, Corey’s all dressed.

“Hey. You here?”

Nodding, he tries to pull Corey back down, but laughing, Corey stops him.

Then, kissing him, Corey says, “I need to go, now. Take care of yourself, Mason.”

Waking more fully, he grabs Corey’s hand.

Something about the kiss had seemed almost- sad? Regretful?

Whatever he might feel before or after, when he’s kissing Corey, it always feels so right.

“Is something going on? If it is, you should tell me. You can, you know. I caught you with a stolen car last night, and well, here we are. No reports, anonymous or otherwise, to the police. I could help protect you.”

Corey shakes his head.

“You don’t think I could?”

He can see Corey is choosing his words carefully, and finally, Corey says, “It’s not something I want. Maybe, people like me need people like you to save our asses occasionally, but that’s because people like you are too smart to ever really need anyone. I’d rather you keep being smart and surviving instead of risking yourself to get me out of some mess.”

Something different is happening. More than just the fact Corey’s never talked like this, he can _feel_ that something different is going on.

“Does that mean you’ve gotten into a mess?”

Shrugging, Corey gives him a typical Corey smile: A little arrogant, actually somewhat bland in comparison to his other smiles, and good at hiding whatever he’s thinking. A placeholder expression.

Leaning down, Corey kisses him, but before he can deepen it, Corey’s standing up. “Goodbye, Mason.”

Part of him is screaming not to let Corey go, but all he does is watch him walk out of the hotel door.


End file.
